Silicon Valley executive takes plea deal in barcode-swapping caper

A Silicon Valley executive accused of swapping barcodes on Lego sets to buy them at deep discounts has taken a plea deal to avoid potentially being deported, his attorney said.

Thomas Langenbach was charged last year with four felony counts of commercial burglary and faced a potential maximum sentence of three years behind bars.

Under the deal reached Monday, Langenbach pleaded guilty to one count and will serve one month in jail, five months of house arrest and three years of probation, said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Duffy Magilligan.

Langenbach's criminal defense attorney, Geoffrey Carr, said his client could have been deported to his native Germany if convicted of two felonies. Langenbach is a longtime legal resident alien and has two children who are U.S. citizens.

"He did not want to under any circumstances face possible deportation, because of the consequences to his family," Carr told The Daily News.

Authorities said Langenbach brought his own barcode stickers to Target stores in Mountain View and Cupertino, used them to cover up the real ones on Lego sets, and then purchased the pricey toys at deep discounts.

When police searched Langenbach's $2 million home in San Carlos, they found hundreds of unopened Lego sets. Further investigation revealed that he had made tens of thousands of dollars selling the toys on eBay, but not necessarily from barcode-swapped sets, Magilligan said.

Langenbach swapped barcodes on a total of seven sets, Magilligan said. The loss to Target was $345.

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All but one -- a $149 Millennium Falcon -- was recovered. Langenbach will have to pay restitution to the national retailer if the recovered sets cannot be restocked.

Carr said it was obvious to him that his client's motivation wasn't to make money but to experiment with software that his company, SAP Labs, had created.

"It was just a guy doing something dorky and for not a lot of money," Carr said.

Langenbach, a top executive at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, was fired shortly after news of his arrest broke, said Carr, adding that his client has since moved to the East Bay and is trying to find work as a consultant.